


I'm Not You

by brotherfuckers



Series: Striderclan [97]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Brotherly Bonding, Fights, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-10 07:12:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2015835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brotherfuckers/pseuds/brotherfuckers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave goes out to Hollywood to visit and gets upset with how D's coworkers see him until he snaps and he throws a Strider sized hissy fit that ruins some of D's set.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Not You

Dave manages to contain his awe over the freaking size of the set they had going on for D’s newest project. Just for the laughs, D had them rebuild the entire front half Irish castle in one of the lots. It’s all made of foam instead of rock. The size of it is jaw dropping and the detail they put into it, amazing. Makes Dave wonder why they just don’t film it in Ireland, and then he remembers who his brother is. Also, since it is all foam, all of the destruction they do on the inside will be filmed live instead of digitally constructed. They will still do digital enhancements of course, but it’s hard to perfectly recreate a chunk or two slamming into an actor’s cheek.

To top it all off, there is a twin of the castle right next to the first that has already been torn down into ruins, doubling the awe Dave feels for the set. But he keeps it all off his face and remains as calm as D as the two of them stride across the lot.

There is a lot of movement everywhere as everyone gets set up for the next couple of scenes. Apparently there is a lot of special effects being used and placed all around the grounds of the castle. Dave notices that there is a significant amount of explosives for the experts to use. It’s going to be an awesome day of filming when they get around to it.

D stops to talk to a couple of people in a lingo that Dave hasn’t fully caught up on. It’s amazing how English can sound like another language when spoken in a strange context. Dave trails along for a little while, not really able to join in on any of the conversations, not that he would have anything to add. He recognizes one or two faces from previous works and they give him a little wave either before talking to D or after. Dave gets distracted by a rack of weapons hanging on a wall. He goes over to investigate, waving D’s inquisitive sound behind him. D shrugs and continues on with his work as yet another assistant comes up with a question about the falconry.

It takes getting up close and personal with the weapons before Dave can tell that they aren’t actually real. Knowing D, it’s a toss up of if they were foam or if they were metal with a sharp edge forged specifically for the movie. The real ones were almost always used in his comedies and the fake ones used in his serious movies. And he would never add in sparks or edit out where the foam ones bounce and bend when they hit something. One of D’s trademarks.

These are foam but very well crafted. Dave runs his fingers over the painted surfaces. The level of detail is incredible. But Dave should have expected it with the half castle looming in the background. D never does anything in half measures. Dave picks up the biggest of the broadswords and waves it around. For it being foam, it actually has some heft to it. He swings it around a bit, making sure not to hit anything in the area.

“Hey kid! Don’t touch that!” Dave glances around and sees the source of the voice running at him, huffing a bit at the exercise. When the large man gets close enough to see him, he stops short. “Oh, you’re D’s little brother. Sorry about that. Some kids just like to sneak in onto set.”

“Can’t really say I blame them with this loot hanging around.”

“Still shouldn’t be touching things that aren’t yours.”

“I couldn’t help it, it was calling my name.”

The man squints his eyes at Dave. “At least you had decent form. Better than some of the actors I’ve been trying to teach so they don’t look like complete goofs.”

“You teach? Mind showing me some moves? I just got a couple of dweebs back home who think they are ninjas.”

“Japanese swords, eh? Toothpicks that can still cut you in half. Yeah I guess I can show you a bit.”

They move to a slightly smaller broadsword and the guy does show Dave the differences in weapon styles, correcting all of the ‘bad habits’ he picked up from Bro’s teachings. After that Dave suggests some one on one, some show instead of tell. The guy just rolls his eyes but agrees and kicks Dave’s ass for a couple of quick rounds before Dave gets the hang of things. They are even until Dave starts improvising some and finally gets the upper hand.

“Eh, not bad, not bad at all kid. Picked up on that pretty quickly. Shoulda known since you’re D’s little brother. Just as fast as him picking things up. Though he paid for the formal lessons and then hired me.”

“Sounds like him.”

“Best job I’ve had. I get to hit the stupid air headed celebrities under the guise of teaching.” Dave laughs with the dude knowing that D probably supervised those encounters just to get some vicarious enjoyment. “Well, I gotta get back to that. I’ll see you around though, kid.” He waves off and leaves Dave to continue to wander around the set since he has no idea where D fucked off to for his work.

As he walks and explores, carefully not getting in anybody’s way, he sees a couple more familiar faces from previous projects. A couple new people also look up to say hello and greet him as he’s easily recognizable from their director.

“Hey! It’s D’s kid brother!”

“You’re not D, where’s the tall you?”

“Hello Dave, you looking to follow your brother in show biz? Hanging around to learn the ropes?”

“It’s short D! How’s it going, buddy?”

“Hey D- oh, you aren’t D?”

“What’s it like being a director’s brother? Does he tell you how to do stuff at home?” (“He only tells you what to do, Alex, because you’re too dumb to do it right on your own!” “Shut up, Milton!”)

“Sup, kid D, ya wanna be a director too?”

“Hey, you’re D’s younger brother.”

“Gimme some skin, D’s little!”

“D’s brother.”

Dave is going to explode if he hears any version of that phrase again, his good mood sliding into sour as he continues to run into people across the giant set. He had his own name. Just no one seemed to know how to use it, or even let him introduce himself. They just knew him as D’s brother. D’s little brother. D’s kid brother. D’s younger brother. D’s brother. Never Dave. And all of the dumb assumptions that he wanted to get into movie making. Like he’d want the stress of that. Watching the stock exchange on a bad idea was a vacation compared to the shit he’s seen D go through. Why the fuck would he want any of that? Why would he want to do all of that while fighting to get out of D’s shadow?

God, as if D’s ego wasn’t already huge. If he had been walking along with Dave and heard all of this bullshit, he wouldn’t be able to go through doorways with his giant inflated head.

Dave takes a deep breath. He knows it’s not D’s fault that these people are saying this shit. He did work hard for all of his fame and glory. He deserves it. And he is the big boss around here so it makes sense that all of these brown noses are kissing his ass like it’s the Pope’s. But they don’t have to dismiss Dave as his own separate entity entirely. Someone could give a damn about him without fucking mentioning D.

Dave’s pokerface gets flatter and flatter and he’s glad his shades cover the rest of the glower.

He’s passing by the costume racks when he hears, “Hey little D!” shouted at him. Dave freezes and tries to count to ten to keep from blowing up, but then he hears the snickers at the double entendre. He whirls around to face the caller who freezes mid laugh at the anger in Dave’s hunched shoulders and balled fists and blank face. Dave briefly recognizes the person but at this point it doesn’t matter.

“Do you want to see my little D! Because it won’t feel so little when I shove it down your throat!” It comes out a little louder than he wanted, and a little more exaggerated than he wanted, but there it was, his comeback to being little D as opposed to his brother the big dick. Everyone in the vicinity has stopped what they are doing to stare at him. He realizes his mistake and wants to run but that would be weak so instead he just stalks off with little puffs of dust under his shoes until he can’t see anyone else and then he fucking books it to D’s trailer.

He slams the door shut and locks the door, tempted to try to throw something in front of the door too but doesn’t see anything immediately moveable. He flops face first across the bed with a very angry frustrated screechy howl.

* * *

“Hey D!” Porrim’s assistant comes running up to him. “Hey, I think your brother just blew up.”

“What!” D’s mind first goes to all of the explosives around the set. They were all supposed to be stable and non reactive and none of the trigger systems were supposed to be hooked up. All dark. And he hadn’t heard anything either, no explosions that would have come from anything being blown up. “What do you mean, Dylan?”

“He yelled at Quent. Very rude and vulgar too if you listen to Jamie. She was a bit traumatized.”

Oh, emotional blowing up. D lets his shoulders sink down in relief. “What did Quent do?”

“That’s what I asked too, because Dave’s your brother and that seems a bit odd for a Strider based on what I’ve seen. But apparently Quent was just saying hi and got threats about Dave shoving his... uh, thing, down Quent’s throat.”

D frowns heavily at that. “It was more than just ‘hi’, I promise you. Do you know his exact words?”

“Uh... ‘Hi little D’? I think?”

“So Quent called him a little prick. Great. Still... not really enough to warrant a Strider meltdown. I’ll need to go handle this. Uh. Send everyone home. I’ll be spending the rest of the day with my brother and I don’t need anyone poking around. Kick everyone off set.” D sets down the script he had been reviewing and starts to head towards the trailers. He stops after a couple feet and called back to his assistant’s assistant, “And by the way, Dylan, don’t tell someone their little brother just blew up when we have explosives.” He could see Dylan slowly process the statement and then turn white as he realizes the implications of what he just told D. D just rolls his eyes and keeps walking.

He can hear the set get louder and then quiet down as people get the news about closing up early and being able to go home. Everyone packs up quickly and skedaddles for their newfound freedom. He’s glad that he has such a loyal crew. And that they know how to shut up and go.

It’s almost dead silent by the time he gets all the way across the lot. He gets to his trailer and checks the door, obviously locked. As it only locks from the inside, he doesn’t quite have a key. There is a way to carefully jiggle the lock for it to tumble back open but it takes nearly the skill of a master jewel thief to do it and D doesn’t want to have to go through that again. He knocks loudly on the door, hoping that Dave isn’t asleep.

“Hey, it’s me, D. Are you okay, Dave?” He gets a muffled reply back. “I can’t hear you. Speak up. Are you alright?”

“No, you fucking idiot, I’m not!”

“O-kay, message received. Open the door so we can talk about it instead of just yelling at each other.

“No!”

“Fuck. Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to!”

“Seriously? Why are you panties in a knot over someone calling you little D? It’s not like you’re a prick. Trust me, I get that joke enough. It gets old. But you didn’t have to threaten like that. Unless you think he was talking about your dick, which I really hope you don’t call it little D because as egotistical as I am, that’s not one of the things I want my name on. Besides I thought you named your Manzel or something stupid like that.”

“Shut up and go away!”

“No!” D yells back at him. Damnit, he is going to have to break into his own trailer. Great. He grips the knob and lifts the door on his hinges and starts bouncing it as close to exactly as he remembered from when he had to break into that one actress’ because she refused to work without her fucking dog and wouldn’t believe they had him right outside.

Just as he feels the tumbler about to go and fall back open, it flips anyways and the door explodes open, knocking D back with the edge. He feels lucky that it didn’t connect with his nose and only bounced off of his knee. Which still smarts but wasn’t as bad as it could have been. He only gets a startled second before he catches sight of something swinging in his direction forcing him to retreat further.

Dave’s face is red and messy under his shades. D’s only seen him this angry every once in a while. He keeps swinging at D making him back up as fast as his long legs will take him while trying not to trip on anything. He almost goes down once but manages to wrap his hand around a long pole and brings it up to bear under Dave’s next swing making sparks fly from the metal on metal. Well, that’s one boomstick microphone that’s no longer usable. But it gives him a chance to get his feet back underneath him. They continue to work their way away from the trailers as D defends himself against Dave’s wild swings.

“I’M NOT YOU!” Dave screams. “I’M NOT YOUR CLONE!”

“What?” Well at least he’s getting something from Dave now, though he wouldn’t really consider this talking it out. He’s doubly glad he’s sent everyone home.

“FUCK OFF! I’M NOT YOU!”

D catches sight of fresh tears rolling down Dave’s cheeks and feels terrible over it. He knows the visible emotion isn’t helping. Dave’s probably angry that he’s crying which only fuels the original fire. Which has something to do with D.

“I’M MORE THAN JUST YOUR LITTLE BROTHER!”

Ah, there it is. He’s probably heard a lot of that today. D frowns because just being his little brother wouldn’t make him a clone. Dave’s done a lot of things on his own. A lot of impressive things. Things D couldn’t do if he tried.

“I’M NOT YOU!” Dave screams as he tries to slice down hard but it catches on the boomstick, embedded in the shaft. D takes the opportunity to twist the makeshift weapon and tear the sword out of his hands, tossing them both away. He hopes for a brief second that the lack of a weapon would slow Dave down but he just screams angrily for a second before lunging to the side. It takes D a blink to realize that they’ve managed to work their way to the fake armory and Dave’s gone for one of the weapons. D learns that, despite being foam, they hurt if there's enough force behind them, and Dave put plenty in his first swing.

Dave doesn’t get a second swing in before D’s picked up his own fake weapon. Which turns out to be a battle ax. He parries Dave’s sword for a couple of hits before the sword breaks, the end flopping over awkwardly. Dave tosses it aside and grabs another. This time it’s D’s weapon that breaks first and he has to roll to the side and pick up another to defend himself.

“I’M DAVE! I’M DAVE DAMNIT!”

“You are! You are! Shit, calm down for a second.”

“DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!”

“Jesus.” D trips over a chair and nearly goes down. He only barely rolls away before Dave’s sword crashes down where he was, breaking on the floor. D’s on his feet in a flash but Dave already has another weapon.

“I’M NOT YOU!” Dave roars as he runs forward.

“I’ve never thought of you as me! Even a mini me!” D yells back at him. “You’ve always been Dave! You do your own thing!” He blocks several more hits but accidentally lets one through that smashes into his shoulder. “You do the money thing, the numbers thing!” His weapon breaks but he doesn’t have time to reach for another. He uses the stump of a sword as best he can. “Yeah I want to work with you! But as equals! Not because you are me!”

His vision gets a little blurry but he realizes that it’s from his own tears building up in his eyes. He tries to blink them away but they roll down his cheek. He can’t even take a moment to brush them away because Dave keeps attacking. He feels the emotions rise in his chest as he thinks about what has made Dave so upset. He feels like a terrible guardian. He feels like he’s fucked up and now his little brother hates him. He’s never wanted any of his brothers or even his sisters to live in his shadow. This wasn’t right. This isn’t right.

D throws down his weapons and lets Dave’s strikes hit him. He tries not to flinch but the foam mace still comes down hard.

“FUCK YOU! Fuck you! Fuck you!” Dave’s openly sobbing now and D feels like he’s only a step behind. “I’m not you. I’m not. I’m Dave.” Dave drops his weapon too but just ends up using his fists against D’s chest. Not much of an improvement for D but Dave feels like he’s petering out.

“You’re Dave. You’re Dave. You’re not me.”

“I’m not you.” Dave falls forward, burying his face into D’s shirt. His shoulders heave as he tries to draw a breath through his tears and messy face. D just wraps his arms around Dave shoulders and holds him tight. He’s sore as fuck, but that’s not important right now. He just lets Dave cling to him as much as he clings to Dave.

It takes a good long while for the two of them to calm down to the point that their breaths aren’t hiccuping at each other.

“Wanna get some ice cream now, Dave?”

“Yeah. Yeah, ice cream would be nice.”

As they turn to leave with D’s arm thrown over Dave’s shoulders, D looks over the room. Seems like he’ll be doubling the props budget to get all of the weapons they just broke replaced.

“Sorry, D.”

“No worries, Dave. It happens. That’s what toy weapons are for."

 

**Author's Note:**

> For more information please check out our work at striderclan.tumblr.com; we have more stories, head canons, art/pictures.


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